GOLDEN, Colo. -- The 2019 NCAA DII West Region Champion Point Loma Sea Lions found themselves in a big hole in this years’ opening round and never recovered.
Northwest Nazarene (12-4), of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, in its first-ever NCAA appearance, took a big, early lead and never looked back, defeating Point Loma, 85-73, at the Lockridge Arena on the campus of the Colorado School of the Mines Friday evening.
The Nighthawks, who were appearing in any postseason for the first time since 1999, improve to 12-4, while Point Loma ends its season at 8-3. Point Loma, which played every team on its schedule at least twice, had defeated Northwest Nazarene in the opening game of the season by 30 points, 87-57.
Northwest Nazarene advances to the second round and will face No. 1 seed Colorado Mesa (16-2) Saturday. The game time hasbeen moved up to 7:30 pm (MST) due to the pending snowstorm in the Denver area.
Point Loma was led by All-PacWest junior guard Brock Mackenzie with 20 points, while Player of the Year Kaden Anderson and senior guard John Caston had 18 and 17 points, respectively.
“We faced a lot of challenges, especially in the summer when (COVID) first happened,” Anderson said. “Coming back, we started later than most teams. Coming here (West Region playoffs), we just didn’t show up.”
Anderson reflected on his Player of the Year honor.
“It meant a lot with a lot of hard work in the summer,” said Anderson. “It showed, but at the end of the day, we just got to get better. We’ll be back here next year.”
The Nighthawks were led by senior guard Ezekiel Alley with 20 points and a perfect 10 for 10 at the line. Senior guard Sam Roth and sophomore forward Gabriel Murphy added 18 and 12 points, respectively.
“I’m really proud of our program to have overcome what we did this year,” Point Loma coach Matt Logie said. “Essentially, we started at halftime and in addition to that we had one of our key starting guards not able to get back into the country and another starter had a season-ending injury. We had a lot of guys step up in new roles and really did a great job to help us get here in a short time frame.”
Point Loma, 3-0 at the time, had to stop for two weeks after its third game of the season due to Covid protocols.
With a commanding 23-9 lead midway through the opening half, the Sea Lions found themselves back on their heels. However, trailing by 16 points, 34-16, with 5:37 left in the half, Point Loma found some life in its game. The Sea Lions finished the half strong, outscoring the Nighthawks, 14-6. In that run, in which the whole team and bench came alive, two consecutive 3-pointers by sophomore forward Griffin Barker and Anderson and two baskets by Mackenzie, cut the lead to 10 points, 40-30, at the break.
“Kaden is a terrific player and he works really hard on his game,” Logie added. “He’s carried us all year long and he’s such a versatile player.”
The second half was virtually even, as Northwest Nazarene only had a bucket advantage, 45-43, over the Sea Lions.
“We had a pause in the middle of the year and you have to credit our guys for sticking to the process,” Logie said. “Obviously, we’re disappointed with the result, but you can tip your hat to NNU. They played a great game and they deserve to move on.”